Day 49

I went to an interesting seminar on Digital Asset Management this morning. I can already see the writing on the wall. It's not pretty. I'm not going to be able to edit on video tape for very much longer. The next time I upgrade equipment, it's all going to be tapeless. You'd think this would be a good thing, but like most advances in technology designed to make my life easier, it's really quite the opposite. Video files are huge. That's why when a project is finished, it's nice to be able to put the original camera tapes in a cardboard box and take them down to the storage warehouse for safekeeping. It's simple. It's safe. And I understand the concept.

In the brave new world of tapeless video, you save all these files to a hard drive...a very, very large hard drive! Instead of keeping your footage safely tucked away on a shelf somewhere, it's sitting on a hard drive that can crash, get corrupted or simply wear out. Several companies have elaborate digital asset management solutions that can alleviate all these worries, but not surprisingly, they are very expensive.  Here's the dilemma. Video production budgets keep getting lower and lower while the cost of just staying in the game keeps getting higher. Now that I've finally got a nice, reliable Beta-SP edit bay...it's obsolete.

Going tapeless is a worry for another day. Today, I've got to take Dot to the vet again. The methocarbamol she was taking last week seems to have worked. No more back pain. I hate depending on meds, however. With most drugs, the side effects eventually outweigh the benefits. The vet says she's going to teach me how to give Dot a deep tissue massage that will relax her and release the lactic acid buildup in her lower back muscles. That sounds like a much better solution than a life on muscle relaxers.

I had to walk the dogs really early this morning so I could get to the seminar on time. When we reached the halfway point in our walk, we saw a pack of coyotes on a small hill right in front of us. The dogs went nuts. Why they were trying to attract the attention of a pack of coyotes, I'll never know. I told Dot to shut up or we were all going to get eaten. Luckily the coyotes weren't all that impressed and disappeared into the bushes after a few minutes.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 48

I had to drive up to Imaging Spectrum this afternoon to buy some more ink for the studio printer. Epson ought to just give these wide format printers away. All of them are just sophisticated machines designed for the sole purpose of selling ink. Every year I spend more money filling my printer up with ink than it cost me to buy it in the first place. I'm hooked on big, beautiful photos however, so I just grit my teeth and continue to buy more ink.

It's hard to believe that February is here already. January just flew by. I'm glad I didn't make many New Year's resolutions this year, or I'd be even further behind than I already am. Unfortunately, I did resolve to post something new on this blog every day. Piece of cake. Good thing I didn't resolve to post something worthwhile everyday. If that were the case, I'd have nothing yet.

I'm still a bit amazed at how many former co-workers I've been able to re-connect with using LinkedIn. I've been getting a lot of "I've been wondering what you've been up to" e-mail today. Apparently nobody that I used to work with has taken the plunge and retired yet. Maybe, like me, they entertained the idea of retiring early until sometime last November or December when the stock market collapsed. Or then again, maybe they all just love advertising and want to keep on working forever.

It's probably a good thing that I'm destined to keep working till I drop. When I'm working, I'm usually thinking. Thinking is good! When I'm not thinking, I'm inevitably on eBay, buying all sorts of crap I don't need. As frustrating as advertising can be, it's not nearly as frustrating as looking at a storage warehouse packed to the ceiling with stuff and wondering what it all is and why you bought it in the first place. They say alcohol and drugs have the potential to become addictive, but these vices are not nearly as dangerous as becoming a collector. Collecting will definitely be my downfall.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 47

I think I'm finally starting to get it. Even though I was an early adopter of all things involving cyberspace, I've had a hard time understanding why Internet 2.0, or the Social Internet, as many people call it, was so important. Now I understand. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn...all these social networking sites; they're really just an extension of the Kevin Bacon Game. Let's say you have 24 connections on one of these sites. If you count "friends of friends" you immediately have 1800 connections. Start counting "friends of friends of friends" and all of the sudden you have over 200,000 connections. This is the whole "Six Degrees of Separation" theory. Everyone in the world is just six people away from knowing everyone else in the world.

It's all pretty intoxicating at first. Then you start to realize that even with all your fabulous Facebook friends, most of the telephone calls you receive are still from telemarketers. I wonder sometimes if living in an interconnected world makes any difference at all? It doesn't seem to make that much difference to me. I know I'm connected to something, but it doesn't seem real. I get e-mail every day asking me to do things. I do a little typing, upload a few files, scan a few pictures and send a reply e-mail that usually just says "Done!" I periodically get a check in the mail from these people, but I never see them anymore. They're all too busy answering their own e-mail.

We took our dogs to Unleashed again this afternoon like we do every Sunday. Dogs are more honest about everything. They have a much easier time staying connected. All they do is sniff butts.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 46

At my age, whenever I tell someone I'm on my way to a party, it inevitably means I'm on my way to some sort of charity fundraiser. This evening, Janet and I listened to The Pit Pops and The Lupners play at Lake Highlands Live #4: a charity "battle of the bands" featuring local "Dad Bands." I think this benefit was to raise money for a scholarship fund at Lake Highlands High School. The bands were actually pretty good, considering that in real life all the musicians were aging accountants, real estate agents and small business owners. I used to play in a rock band that was similar in many ways to The Pit Pops. We called ourselves The Fabulous Has-Beens. The band stayed together for over five years and we all had a great time playing old Motown hits we loved in college. I guess when you get down to it, everyone would really rather be a rock star.

I'm tired of Winter already. It never got above freezing today. I'm never really happy with Texas weather. In the Winter I want to live someplace warmer. In the Summer I want to live someplace cooler. There are two weeks every Fall however, when everything is perfect. At least the rain quit this morning and I didn't have to spent half the day cleaning mud off the dogs.

I don't know why I didn't set up a LinkedIn account earlier. I've only had the account one day now and already I'm accumulating quite a few contacts. LinkedIn is actually a brilliant idea. My regular contact list is perpetually out of date. People move around so much now that I've always got the wrong phone number or address for friends and customers. With LinkedIn, if you take the time to locate someone once, you'll never have to do it again. I think I'm going to transfer all my contacts to LinkedIn and throw my Rolodex away. Oops...that won't work. A lot of my veterinarian clients don't even use e-mail.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 45

Don't ever try to carry an umbrella when you're walking two Dalmatians in the rain. I foolishly thought I could avoid doing an extra load of laundry and save thirty minutes clean-up time by putting raincoats on the dogs and carrying a big yellow umbrella when I took the dogs on their morning walk. Bad move. The  dogs shook their raincoats off within two minutes and they were scared of the umbrella, so I had to ditch that as well. By the time we arrived home we were all soaking wet, just like we always are when we take rainy day walks. I wish these dogs would learn to do their business in the yard when the weather is bad, but they insist on their regular walk, rain or shine.

By the time I got everyone clean and dry again it was almost time for lunch. It didn't really matter that I wasted hours dealing with wet dogs though. Fridays are always slow. I think most of my clients leave early for the weekend. I finished all my regular website updates in an hour or so and spent the rest of the day setting up my new LinkedIn account. Younger people I work with are convinced that things like a Facebook page or a Twitter Tweet really matter. I'm, not so sure. I'm really pretty easy to find on the Internet, but I don't think that my online presence or any attempts at social networking have ever brought me any significant business.

If you want new business, just go have lunch with a friend. My company has done pretty well over the years and just just about all the business we've ever gotten has come from referrals I've received from friends. When I need to hire suppliers, I'll always ask a friend for their opinion on who would be good for the job. The Internet can connect you to the entire world in an instant, but only friends can tell you who is reliable.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 44

Dash won another ribbon last night at obedience class, so I guess just about anything is possible. If my disobedient dog can win a ribbon every once in a while, maybe this blog will eventually make in into the Technorati Top 100. It could happen, you know. All I have to do is keep writing my way from Day 44 to Day 3044, consistently getting a little better each day. I've been working long enough to finally realize that persistence is the biggest component of success. It's a shame I didn't learn this earlier in life. I burned a lot of bridges working my way through 17 different ad agencies in search of the perfect job.

Even thought I've spent most of my adult life in the advertising industry, it still surprises me from time-to-time that advertising actually works. My clients are continually asking me why their websites don't rank higher in Google searches. Everybody wants to be on page one. They think I can work some sort of optimization magic to make Google rank their page higher. Usually, I just tell them to buy Google Adwords instead. Think about it. Google practically owns the Internet. If you want them to notice you, just pay them. Recently, I decided to practice what I preach and buy some Google Adwords for my own site. Sure enough, traffic increased and my site was consistently in the top ten for the keywords that were important to me.

The only problem with Google Adwords is that they can end up being pretty expensive. If your business depends on your website, hiring Google is dirt cheap. If you're just playing around however, you can run up an alarmingly big bill on your credit card in a short amount of time. For playing around at increasing traffic, I prefer Entrecard. It's kind of bogus, since most people dropping cards on your Entrecard widget don't even stick around to read your posts. It does increase traffic, however. Entrecard is kind of fun too. You have this illusion that you're making lots of money, until one day you wake up and realize it's all Monopoly money.

I could go on and on, but you probably already realize that I'm just blathering. It's raining cats and dogs outside and I haven't even been out of the house all day. It's a good thing it's Martini Night this evening.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 43

I love the new iPad. Even though all I really need anymore is a Big Chief tablet and a number two pencil, I'm probably going to be first in line to get one of these amazing little gizmos. The iPad was clearly designed for consumers of content. That's OK. Since so many people in the Mac community are creators of content, it won't be long before you can input an HD video stream wirelessly into your iPad, do your editing at Starbucks and then upload your finished video straight to a post house for distribution. There'll be an app for that. There'll probably be special versions of Dreamweaver and Final Cut Pro that are optimized for use on the iPad as well. So, what will I use my new iPad for? I don't know. Most of the e-mail I get is spam. When clients send me e-mail, I try to call them back on the phone to avoid spending thirty minutes typing a response. I guess I could watch a movie on the iPad, but it's probably still more enjoyable to watch movies on the big TV in the bedroom. Probably the most useful thing I could do with an iPad is show clients their new websites and videos somewhere where it's quiet rather than have them come over to the studio and be barked at by the dogs. Oh wait...I can already do this with my laptop.

So, there you have it. I need a new iPad about as much as I need this blog. I'd hazard a guess that you can't even change the batteries yourself and I'll have to send it back to Apple in California and pay $400 to get the battery replaced. Been there. Done that.

I got some more pictures rejected by a stock photo agency today. Maybe I just don't understand stock photography. I ought to, since I certainly buy enough of it. Nevertheless, rather than send the stock agencies the same type of pictures I buy (like a simple, well lit fork or salt shaker) I foolishly try to send them something "interesting" that I think shows off my vision as a photographer. Eight times out of ten, I get back a polite little note saying that the photo "doesn't meet our needs."

I'm not complaining. I do understand what's going on. It's just can't bring myself to take pictures of salt shakers. Maybe I'm a lot like my dog Dash. We go to dog training class in an hour or so. We've been going every Wednesday evening for several years now and Dash knows every command perfectly.  On rare evenings when the stars are aligned and the weather is perfect, he'll go through all the exercises flawlessly and win a ribbon. The rest of the time he just doesn't give a shit.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 42

I wonder sometimes what compels people to write. I certainly didn't start out to be a writer. When I graduated from architecture school I, not surprisingly, went to work for an architect. It was three years later that I discovered that I could make twice as much money working as an advertising copywriter. It didn't seem to matter that I had absolutely no training as a copywriter. Back in the early 70's it seemed to be a plus if you came from outside the industry. One of the first creative directors I worked for used to be a wrestling coach. My favorite boss, the legendary John Brown got his start in the industry when he walked into Hal Newsom's office at Cole & Weber and said he was tired of repairing IBM typewriters and thought he'd make a good writer.

I go through periods when I feel like writing and then I'll grow disinterested and won't write a word for years at a time. The last time I felt like writing was in the mid 90's. I wrote four books in less than two years. Excerpts from these books were published in obscure magazines, but the books themselves never found a publisher. Since the manuscripts were just gathering dust on a shelf, I decided to put them on the Internet shortly after I discovered how to build a website. In 1997, one of the books, a series of essays I called The Road to Nowhere became one of five finalists for Cool Site of the Year. I didn't win. A well financed site called The Onion was the winner that year. You'd think coming this close to greatness would have inspired me to write more, but it didn't. I gradually wrote less and less and eventually left copywriting to return to photography.

I probably would have made a better blogger back when my life was exciting. I can't help but noticing that the controversial and outrageous bloggers get a lot more followers. If there is a master index of blogs somewhere, I'm probably lumped in with all the mommy blogs.

No more flights on Lufthansa for a morning creative meeting in Germany. No need to take the Armani suits to the dry cleaners anymore. It's all about dogs now. The high point of the day was taking Dot to the vet. We've noticed that she's been feeling painful in her lower back lately and thought it might be a slipped disk. Apparently not. After a thorough series of tests, the vet says she has lactic acid build up in her muscles. She needs a massage.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 41

I got an RFP to design another veterinary website today. Budgets certainly aren't what they used to be, but I'm eternally grateful that people still find a need for people like me. Making a living as a creative person isn't as easy as it used to be however. I'm continually amazed at how sophisticated people have become about website design. They take for granted things that weren't even possible two years ago. It wasn't that long ago that almost everyone was happy enough with a nice looking layout, lots of pictures of their product and a few well chosen words. Now, they expect to be able to fill prescriptions online and want live cameras in the day care areas.

I was a lot happier when the world moved at a slower pace. Before the work world became convinced that almost everything could be instantly resolved with the click of a mouse, we were all a lot more civil to each other. When you told a client that you could probably find a resolution to their problem in two or three weeks they didn't complain and demand an answer tomorrow. When I began my career, just about everybody had a secretary or some sort of assistant. You could scribble something on a yellow note pad, send it off for proofreading, and it would arrive neatly typed on your desk the next morning.

Those days are long gone. You're on your own now. Your only assistant is a copy of Microsoft Word. People don't even like to talk on the telephone anymore. Today my clients seem to universally prefer e-mail. It takes me at least an hour every morning just to answer my e-mail. How many times have you had to spent thirty minutes typing a detailed answer to a question that could have been resolved in thirty seconds over the telephone? Even when people do use the telephone, they don't like to talk. They text!

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 40

It was standing room only when I took Dash to Vheas Laundromutt for his weekly bath. We've never had to stand in line for a bath before, but the weather was beautiful today, after an unusually long string of rainy days. Probably people wash their dogs the same ways they wash their cars: when they just can't stand the mud anymore. Dash is a regular at the Laundromutt. He has a skin condition that requires a special medicated bath at least once a week. We've watched Vhea's business grow and prosper since she took over the place from the previous owners. It's nice to see a small business succeed. Especially one located right in the neighborhood.

It was also nice to see that Unleashed had all the promotional posters that we gave them for our upcoming Valentines Day pet picture event prominently displayed throughout the dog park when we took Dot and Dash to play later in the afternoon. Hopefully, this pet picture event will be a big success. When Dalmatian Rescue has done these type of fundraisers before, we've been working in much smaller venues, so this could be a good opportunity for us.

I've started noticing that many of the same people come to the dog park every Sunday afternoon. Maybe we aren't the only ones who spend their entire weekend catering to the needs of their dogs. There are certainly other things that need to be done. I could have gone up on the roof and cleaned off all the leaves. I could have gone down to the rent house and made sure there weren't any dead bugs on the floor to scare away potential tenants. I could have gotten a head start on next week's website updates.  Naw...I think all these things can wait.  It's a beautiful day and the dogs need to play.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 39

I stopped by Aaron Brothers on the way to the grocery store to get some frames before their penny sale ends tomorrow. It probably says something about me that a frame shop is one of the few places in town where they greet me by name when I arrive. I love to frame things. When you put a frame around something, you look at it differently. You could pick up trash on the street, put it in a nice frame and suddenly it becomes art. Perhaps this blog is just a way to frame each day. Words in books. Images in frames. It's all the same, really. Just a way to get people to pay attention to the things around them.

Today, I just wish people would pay attention to their driving. It's another soggy, wet day in Dallas and traffic is terrible. Things slow down to a snail's pace whenever it rains. Lord help us if it snows. We know what to do if a tornado hits, but garden variety wet weather doesn't seem to bring out the best in us.

Just about every Saturday shares a common theme these days. I vaguely remember doing something spontaneous on weekends, but it's been a long time. Lately, it feels like my life has become an endless to-do list I will never finish. The house is cleaner this evening. The groceries are in the refrigerator. The laundry has been dried and folded. I'm sure there's still something that still needs to be done.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 38

Life would be a lot easier if the dogs could talk. Dash woke me up at 3 AM this morning. He was whining and pacing around in an agitated state. Was he just whining because Dot stole his place on the bed, or was something wrong? I let the dogs outside, but all they did was start barking and woke all the neighbors. We repeated this exercise three times at twenty minute intervals before Dash revealed the true nature of his problem. He had diarrhea.

In the morning he threw up and had more diarrhea. I took him to the vet, suspecting that his colitis might have returned. Sure enough, that was the diagnosis. I wonder if the missing pumpkin might have caused this? Increasing the amount of fiber in your pet's diet is a common way to manage colitis. It's only been a week or so since all the pumpkin disappeared from the grocery shelves in Dallas, but maybe that was enough to make a difference. On the other hand, maybe Dash just ate some nasty crap in the park while I wasn't looking. It seems easy enough to diagnose colitis, but pinpointing the exact cause is apparently very difficult. At any rate, I can now add Metronidazole and Famotidine to Dash's growing list of daily meds.

It took me a while to figure out how to use the Microsync strobe sync system that arrived yesterday. There was a big warning sign on the receiver that said never to use the unit with power packs that had high sync voltages. To be safe I plugged the receiver into a WEIN Safe-Sync adapter, and turned everything on. Nothing worked. I changed the transmitter to a different frequency, and still nothing worked. I was about to give up when I noticed a picture on the Microsync package that showed the unit plugged directly into a Norman power pack just like mine with no voltage reduction adapter at all. I got rid of the safe-sync adapter and set up the unit just like it looked on the box. Everything worked perfectly. None of this was mentioned in the instructions, of course.

Dash is sleeping peacefully now. Hopefully the worst is over.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 37

I'll never get used to Texas weather. Less than a week ago, I was worrying about the pipes freezing and today it was 75° outside. Hard to believe it's T-Shirt weather in the middle of January, but that's Texas for you.

What a busy day! One of my clients wanted to add some new employees to their website, so I took over 400 images this afternoon to get twelve good portraits. It's amazing how much things have changed since film disappeared. If I were still shooting on film, I probably wouldn't have taken more than 75 images for the same job. Digital cameras make a lot of things easier, but it's still hard to make people look as glamorous as they'd like to be when they're dressed in hospital scrubs and wearing no makeup.

The Microsync wireless strobe sync system I ordered last week arrived today. Hopefully, I'll find some time to test it tomorrow. I never had a problem using a long sync cord when I was photographing people, but after having dozens of unruly dogs trip over my sync cord when I was helping Dalmatian Rescue with their Christmas pet picture events, I was determined to find a better solution for our upcoming Valentine's Day event. Odd. My clients are happy enough with my obsolete working habits. It's the dogs that are keeping me on the cutting edge these days.

My doctor wouldn't let me drink yesterday after he stuck his camera down my throat. Luckily, that's all in the past now. In honor of Project Runway, we've moved Martini Night to Thursday.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 36

I had to walk the dogs extra early this morning, since I needed to be at Medical City for my EGD test by eight AM. I'm not fond of hospitals. It seems like every time I go, it takes longer and longer to fill out all the paperwork. When I met the doctor, he asked if I still had bleeding and was taking laxatives. "No." I told him, "You're doing an upper GI scope on me this morning." The doctor laughed. "Sorry, wrong end," he said. "I need to keep my ends straight this morning." I already had a colonoscopy last year. Maybe if you combined the video from that test with the one they are taking today, you would end up with a stem-to-stern tour through my entire body. Perhaps I should ask them for the tape and put it on YouTube.

No annoying valium drip today. I was out cold. They gave me Propofol which I like, because it has virtually no side effects. As soon as you are awake, you're good to go. The hospital still won't let you drive home after an EGD, but I'm sure that's just a liability issue. When I woke up after the procedure, the doctor said I had esophageal ulcers, reflux esophagitis, erosive gastropathy and erosive duodenopathy. Well, I guess that explains the heartburn anyway.

Looks like the market is giving back all the gains it made yesterday. I was hoping that yesterday's rally would continue for a day or two in celebration of Scott Brown's big win last night. No such luck. The doctor said to take it easy today, so I guess I'll just go and take a nap with the dogs.  They take it easy every day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 35

I stayed busy most of the day updating several of the websites I manage. I'm quite efficient at making these weekly updates and modifications, but sometimes I wonder how long I can continue hand-coding HTML when everyone is moving to the cloud. Maybe the web development industry is headed in the same direction as the auto industry was 100 years ago. In the early days of the automobile there used to be dozens of successful manufacturers here in the United States, all essentially making custom cars. Now the only automaker left that isn't a ward of the state is Ford.

When Force.com introduced the concept of Cloud Computing, things in my world changed just as fundamentally as the day Henry Ford introduced the assembly line. Already I'm starting to see fellow photographers, graphic designers and architects abandon their very beautiful handmade websites in favor of a sophisticated and easy to use liveBooks template. The writing is on the wall. I don't know who's going to be left standing ten years from now, but it probably won't be me.

Maybe if the market continues to go up like it did today, I won't always have to worry so much about the viability of my business model. I'm not holding my breath though. The chances of the stock market becoming a reliable and predictable source of income are about as good as the chances that Congress will finally get the message and start acting responsibly if Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts tonight.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 34

I don't own a cell phone. Until recently, I've never considered this to be a liability. I'm certainly not that hard to reach. I have an easy to remember e-mail address and my landline phone number hasn't changed in twenty years. Nevertheless, I'm starting to feel like I'm missing some sort of fundamental change in the way society works. Every single one of my clients and most of the vendors I work with carry an iPhone around with them constantly. They seem to be glued to the devices. In meetings, at lunch, even at home, they can't take their eyes off the tiny touch screen.

What could be so important? I've known many of these people for years. A lot of them aren't any busier than I am. Often, their phones don't even ring, but still, they keep staring at them. Maybe I'm missing the point though. While I was eating breakfast this morning, I watched part of a program called "Planet of the Apps" on CNBC. In less than five minutes I saw a neat little iPhone application I could actually use myself. It was an inexpensive program that turned your phone into a fully functional teleprompter. Cool! I spend hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of dollars on renting expensive teleprompters every time I produce a video. Now, a mobile phone can do the same thing.

I'm torn. I'm fascinated by technology, but I still don't find much of a need to talk to anyone. Would an iPhone change my life? I don't know. I have a feeling it would be like the pair of brown alligator shoes that caught my eye last Summer. They're still sitting in my closet unworn almost a year later.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 33

Where have all the pumpkins gone? Canned pumpkin is a great source of fiber, especially for dogs who have trouble expressing their anal glands. We're been adding pumpkin to our dogs meals for quite a while, but recently, I've started noticing that canned pumpkin is harder and harder to find. Albertson's has no pumpkin. Kroger or Tom Thumb don't have any either. Where have the pumpkins gone? I always thought that canned pumpkin was a staple ingredient in any kitchen. I mean everybody loves pumpkin pie, and pumpkin soup is fairly common too. You can still find parsnips, rutabaga and even stranger vegetables almost anywhere, but no pumpkin. I'm mystified.

I used to wonder about the meaning of life. In a pinch, I could quote Schopenhauer and Ludwig Wittgenstein from memory. Now, I wonder where all the pumpkins have gone. I wonder if anyone else finds Haley Bennett's voice irritating when she says "The Human Network" on those new Cisco commercials. I'm starting to wonder why the "live" Aflac duck has been replace by a cheesy looking cartoon duck.

Maybe my brain has already turned to mush. We'll see what else has turned to mush on Wednesday. That's when I'm scheduled to go to Medical City for the EGD test I had to postpone over the Christmas holidays because I couldn't find anyone to drive me to the hospital. They say a flexible endoscope is a remarkable piece of equipment, but I'm still not looking forward to swallowing a video camera.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 32

No breakfast this morning. It's time for another cholesterol screening at Northlake Health Foods. There's usually a huge line of senior citizens ahead of us when we go to these screenings. It's not surprising actually, especially when you consider that you receive a complete blood panel from a reputable testing lab for only $20. When my regular doctor runs a similar panel of tests, it usually shows up as a $400 charge on my insurance statement. I'm convinced that this one little example is at the heart of why the entire health care situation is such a mess. The whole concept of insurance destroys competition. Whenever someone thinks you are paying with someone else's money, the price goes up. Always! Car insurance, health insurance, homeowner's insurance...it's all the same. Nobody gives you their best price, because they know you're not the one who's paying. In theory, going to see your doctor shouldn't cost much more that taking your dog to the vet. Veterinarians are very well trained. They typically have more up-to-date X-Ray and diagnostic equipment than their human medicine counterparts. They only charge a small fraction of what your regular doctor charges however, all while performing essentially the same services.  What's the difference? No insurance is usually involved. The vets know you are paying with your own money and charge accordingly.

Somehow Janet and I missed the usual long line at the cholesterol screening and were in and out in ten minutes. We celebrated our good fortune by going to Cracker Barrel and having a large plate of stuff that wasn't good for us. After pancakes and some nice thick bacon strips, I was ready to hit the stores and do the week's shopping. I'm having a harder and harder time finding incandescent light bulbs. Everyone is stocking these florescent and LED bulbs instead. I hate them. They're way too dim for me and if you drop and break one of the new spiral florescent bulbs, you turn your house into a hazmat site.

Hey, the blog is one month old today and Dr. Who is on BBC tonight. Things could be a lot worse.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 31

It felt like I spent my entire day paying bills. Quarterly taxes are due on January 15. So are the monthly homeowner's association dues for my still vacant rent property. Then, there is the Visa bill, the Mastercard bill, the water bill and on and on. Don't even get me started about health insurance. My monthly health insurance premiums are higher now than my entire salary was when I started working.

Not a very glamorous day. It's raining again. After I cleaned the mud off my own dogs and stopped by the post office to give the IRS everything I made last month, I headed down to the VCA-Loop 12 kennels to repair the Kuranda beds the rescue Dalmatians had destroyed. It's not one of my favorite tasks, since even though the kennel staff says they wash the beds every day, they still reek of dried urine. Kuranda makes the strongest, most durable dog bed out there, but they are no match for a kennel dog with too much time on its hands. Most of the dogs we kennel would be perfectly content to sleep on the sofa all day, like any self-respecting Dalmatian, if they had a real home. They're still waiting though, so they become amazingly creative at destroying their dog beds. It's just boredom. How would you like to stay in a kennel all day?

On a more positive note, I got a call out of the blue this morning from a veterinarian who wondered if I would be interested in designing a website for a new animal hospital he was building. You bet I would!  By this time next month I'm going to have a whole new pile of bills to pay.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 30

I finally got the recalcitrant printers working again and started producing the promotional materials for the Dalmatian Rescue Valentines Day fundraiser. If you live in Dallas, be sure to stop by Unleashed on either February 6 or February 13 and let us take a heart warming portrait of your dog. I'm not surprised that people love these pet picture fundraisers we do. The quality of the photos are fabulous and, at least to me, the prices are unbelievably low. If I charged these kind of prices to my commercial clients, I'd be out of business in a month. It's all for the dogs though. The entire production team gives away their time for these events and although we are tired at the end of the day, we have a lot of fun too.

Thursdays are website update days for several of my clients. Luckily, the workload wasn't that heavy today, so I had time to finish the Valentines Day posters too. Dot is usually the model when I design posters and marketing materials for Dalmatian Rescue. Dash won't stay in one place long enough for me to take a picture.

Keeping the blog current is taking me a bit longer than I thought. I don't know why I'm surprised. Absolutely everything takes me a bit longer than I think it should. In theory, writing something everyday will impose a bit of discipline on my life and help keep my brain from turning to mush. It certainly beats doing Sudoku puzzles anyway. I wish I could continue to work in the slow meticulous way I always have, but still get things done faster. It's probably not going to happen. I don't believe in, or even understand, the whole concept of multi-tasking. Multi-tasking to me is just doing a lot of stuff at once in a non-focused, half-assed way.

So here I am, continuing to do one thing at a time and never getting finished. Finished or not, I'm certainly going to take a break and watch the premier of Project Runway Season 7 tonight. I've gotten totally hooked on that show.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day